A few factoids from the latest CEATL Survey of Working Conditions (CEATL=Conseil Européen des Associations de Traducteurs Littéraires):
--- Only in one country, France, does a literary translator typically earn more than 80% of the average gross income
--- Only in three (Ireland, UK, Sweden) does a literary translator typically earn above 70% of the average gross income
--- Those figures, still high in the EU as a whole, drop to typical earnings of more than 60% of the average gross income in Belgium, Norway and the Netherlands.
--- To quote: "In Italy, the situation is disastrous. In Greece, Germany, Finland, Austria, Denmark and Switzerland, the material situation of translators is critical and professional literary translators are virtually on the bread line."
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By Bruce Humes, March 11, 5:47a.m.
If I gave a damn about how the New York Times critiqued my work, I wouldn't want to be Carlos Rojas or Eileen Cheng-yin Chow right now. Or, for that matter, the editor of their translation of Yu Hua's Brothers.
Critic Jess Row certainly gives the English version of Yu Hua's <兄弟> (Brothers) a less-than-flattering review. And it may well deserve it. I wouldn't know, not having read either the original or the translation.
But what intrigued me about the review are questions like these that occurred as I read it:
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By Bruce Humes, March 7, 7:30p.m.
I've read Murakami in English, French and Chinese, but have always been struck by how unconvincing his "voice" is in Mandarin. His translator in the PRC, Lin Shao-Hua (林少华), has made a career (and no doubt a small fortune) translating one after another of Murakami's best sellers for millions of Chinese readers. No one else has been able to buy the rights. But at long last Lin's stranglehold has been broken by Li Chang-Sheng (李长声), whose translation of 《当我谈跑步时我谈些什么》has just been published.
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By Bruce Humes, March 4, 7:08p.m.
